2016 Outdoor Athletics season kicks off in style with this weekend's Diamond League in Birmingham

The 2016 outdoor season in the UK will really start to get under way this weekend with the prestigious Birmingham Diamond League on Sunday 5th June. The event at Birmingham's Alexander Stadium is part of the world-wide IAAF Diamond League series and attracts some of the biggest names in athletics from across the world.

In 2015 more than a dozen Olympic champions and 27 world champions lined up in the West Midlands, whilst Great Britain’s Adam Gemili became the 100th man in history to break 10 seconds for 100m and British 100m record holder Dina Asher-Smith came within one hundredth of a second of upstaging American superstar Allyson Felix in the 200m.

Greg Rutherford, Birmingham Grand Prix, Feb 2014  

Mo Farah, Birmingham Grand Prix, February 2013

Olympic, World, European and Commonwealth long jump champion Greg Rutherford will be returning to the stage and Mo Farah aims to make the closing event, the men's 3000m, his first big European track race of 2016. Mo has won four times at this event before - the 5000m in 2011 and 2013 and over 2 miles in 2012 and 2014.

See more at: http://www.britishathletics.org.uk/british-athletics-series/birmingham-diamond-league/event-information/

Getting joined-up with Adobe Portfolio

If you have a subscription to the Adobe Creative Cloud, there is now an option to have an online portfolio hosted for free.

I've started mine as a portfolio of sporting images, split into galleries, with the intention to showcase my best images in each sport.

See it here at: http://andychubb.myportfolio.com/

Find out more at: https://www.myportfolio.com/

Action from the Manchester Great City Games

Some action from the Great City Games in Manchester last night. Thankfully, the rain stayed off long enough to get all the events pretty much completed and there were some good performances for an early season outdoor meet.

Britain’s Greg Rutherford returned from a 3 month training camp in Arizona to win the long jump with a Games record 8.20m.

Dafne Schippers won the women’s 100m in 10.94 well ahead of the rest of the field, while Kim Collins showed a clean pair of heels to the younger runners with a time 10.08 secs, with 60m world indoor champion Trayvon Bromell second, and Britons Chijindu Ujah and Richard Kilty third and fourth respectively.

Tiffany Porter won the 100m hurdles in 12.89 ahead of Lucy Hatton. Britain's David King clipped teh last hurdle and was unlucky to lose out to Ryan Wilson of the United States.

In the women's pole vault, America's Katie Nageotte won with a 4.50m vault.
 

 Lucy Bryan

 Chloe Henry from Belgium

Canada's Anicka Newell

 

 Sally Peake

America's Katie Nageotte

 Greg Rutherford

 Netherland's Ronald Hertog

 Greg Rutherford

 

 J J Jegede

 

Men's 100m T44  L to R: Michail Setis (Greece); Felix Streng (Germany); Jarryd Wallace (USA); Paul Peterson (USA)

 Women's 100m hurdles  L to R:  Isabelle Pedersen (Norway); Serita Solomon; Tiffany Porter; Lucy Hatton

 Men's 100m hurdles  L to R: Andreas Martinsen (Denmark); Ryan Wilson (USA); David King; Rene Mahlmann (Germany)

 

 Women's 100m  L to R: Laura Muller (Germany); Tianna Bartoletta (USA); Dafne Schippers (Netherlands); Cleo Vanburen (USA)

Men's 100m  L to R: Richard Kilty; Kim Collins (St Kitts & Nevis); Trayvon Bromell (USA); Chijindu Ujah

Press call for the Manchester Great City Games

In a move away from the traditional Saturday afternoon session of city athletics, this year's Great City Games in Manchester will be run from 6pm on Friday evening.

This meant that the press call was bumped forward to Thursday, but at least the sun was shining a bit for the athletes as they walked down the still-being-built-mind-the-wet-paint track.

The athletes: Greg Rutherford, Chijindu Ujah, Lucy Hatton, Tiffany Porter, Treyvon Bromell

 The runners: Kenenisa Bekele, Tirunesh Dibaba, Zane Robertson

 Kenenisa Bekele and Anthony Crolla swap bling

 Lucy Hatton, Silver at the 2015 European Indoor Championships, 60m hurdles

 Greg Rutherford - Olympic, World, European and Commonwealth long jump champion

 Tiffany Porter - 2014 European Champion at 100m hurdles

 Trayvon Bromell - 2016 World Indoor 60m Champion

 Chijindu Ujah - 2015 British 100m Champion

Kenenisa Bekele - 2004 Olympic 10000m Champion; 2008 Olympic Champion at 5000m and 10000m; 16 times a World Champion

Tirunesh Dibaba - 2008 Olympic Champion at 5000m and 10000m, 2012 Olympic 10000m Champion

Zane Robertson - New Zealand record holder at half-marathon

Double yellow parking lines - so easy to just miss them

You know the feeling.  Late for an appointment.  Can't find a space.  There's one.  Oh, not quite big enough to get the car into - will be over the double yellows by a couple of feet.  Never mind.  Who'll know.....

Last snooker blog entry for a while - honest!

It's all over for another year, the Crucible is being put back together as a theatre.  All we have is lots of memories from the last 18 days - 17 days of competition and the press day that preceded the competition.

For the press day, we were given the opportunity to photograph the top 16 players with the trophy outside the Crucible.  In the end 14 turned up in time for the photo, though Judd Trump and Neil Robertson did make it 5 minutes later for the press conference.  And they all graciously signed a mount frame for the occasion - my best reminder of the 40th playing of the World Snooker Championships in Sheffield.

2016 World Snooker Championships - the last evening

A few pictures from the evening of the last day of the 2016 World Snooker Championships.

 Mark Holmshaw, Barry Hearn and Richard Caborn

Kell Brook and Lord Mayor of Sheffield, Councillor Talib Hussain

 Jason Ferguson, WPBSA Chairman, and Julie Dore, leader of Sheffield City Council

 Referee Paul Collier

 Ding Junhui makes his entrance

 Closely followed by Mark Selby

 A few frames later, and Leicester have two reasons to celebrate

World Snooker Championship - Mark Selby beats Ding Junhui

World number one Mark Selby from England beat China's Ding Junhui 18-14 at the Crucible Theatre to win his second World Championship title.  

Selby lead 14-11 going into the final session in the best-of-35 match.  Ding, bidding to become the first Asian player to win the world title, claimed three frames in a row to take it to 16-14.

But Selby pulled out the stops and made it a double celebration for Leicester on the night.

 Mark Selby waves to his family after winning the 32nd and deciding frame.

 Ding Junhui receives the silver medal from Fred Done, watched by Steve Davis.

 Mark Selby with the trophy and confetti.

 Fred Done, Mark Selby and Steve Davis.

 Mark Selby and family.

World Snooker Championships to remain in Sheffield for an extra 10 years!

On a day when the BBC announced that it will continue to broadcast three of snooker's biggest tournaments until the end of the 2018-19 season, Barry Hearn and Sheffield City Council confirmed that the World Championship will continue to be staged in Sheffield until at least 2027.

The new BBC deal - a two-year extension to the previous agreement - covers the 'Triple Crown' of World Championship, UK Championship and the Masters.

The Crucible will continue to be the 'home' of snokker for another five years at least.

Barry Hearn and Julie Dore, leader of Sheffield City Council, making the annoucement in the Winter Gardens.

2016 World Snooker Championship - the final afternoon session

Mark Selby and Ding Junhui start today's snooker with Selby 10-7 in front, after a late finish last night.

 The trophy displayed on the table before the players walk out.

 A nice set up of the table and teh trophy, all ready for the players to walk out to.

 Frame 18 of 35 and Mark Selby gets ready to break....

...while at the end of the frame, it is Ding Junhui who takes it to 10-8

Sheffield Sharks lose at home but make the BBL Final!

Sheffield Sharks made next weekend's BBL final with an aggregate 159-153 victory over Glasgow Rocks at EIS Sheffield today.  Despite a 68-73 home loss they progress to the finals at the O2 in london after an 11-point margin win (91-80) in the fist leg in Glasgow.

MVP was Brandon Hogg with 20 points, 8 rebounds, 3 assists and 1 steal.